Ad-Industry Optimism Reaches Two-Year High

December 1, 2009

This article is included in these additional categories:

Agency Business | Magazines | Mobile Phone | Newspapers | Out-of-Home | Radio | Staffing | Television

Optimism among advertising executives has reached its highest point in two years, and more executives plan to increase their ad spending over the next twelve months than decrease it -? by a differential of four percentage points, according to the latest Advertiser Optimism Report from Advertiser Perceptions Inc.

That’s the highest level since the fall of 2007, at which time the index had a differential of eight percentage points, writes MediaBuyerPlanner.

The report – which measures various aspects of the industry’s confidence levels during the recession and recovery – characterizes attitudes toward mobile, online, cable TV and outdoor as optimistic and improving. Broadcast TV, radio, magazines and local and national newspapers are categorized as pessimistic and have negative index scores. However, their outlooks are getting better, according to the survey.

“They’re still negative, on balance, but they’re improving,” said Ken Pearl, a partner at Advertiser Perceptions. “They’re moving in the right direction now.”

The ad industry’s improving sentiment could also be perceived in September in terms of job growth: It was the first month in a year that the advertising industry added jobs.

The industry, which includes advertising, marketing services and media, added 800 jobs overall, the first gain since October 2008, according to AdAge’s DataCenter analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

The ad industry’s media sectors added 3,000 jobs, while advertising and marketing-services sectors cut 2,200 jobs for the month.

Global ad spending is expected to begin to recover in 2010. ZenithOptimedia predicts that global ad growth will be 0.5% in 2010, up from an expected decline of 10% this year.

Results from the last Advertiser Perceptions optimism poll taken earlier this year were less sanguine. They showed that ad agency and marketing execs felt generally pessimistic about the short-term future of ad spending, though those at agencies were slightly more optimistic than marketers.

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